Billionaire Ray Dalio’s Secret to Success — Focus on Your Principles
How you stop letting what other people say and do affect you.
“Principles are ways of successfully dealing with reality to get what you want out of life.”
— Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio is America’s famous billionaire investor who managed the world’s largest hedge fund — Bridgewater Associates. You might be surprised that he credits his success to a simple concept — principles.
This man was a living inspiration to me, not because of how good he was at managing hedge funds, but because he taught me how to live a principally-focused life.
What are principles?
Put simply, principles are the fundamental bases that guide our behavior.
Ray Dalio’s core principles include embracing reality and seeking opposing views to challenge his beliefs. He talks about many others in his book Principles by Ray Dalio — which you can find via a simple search.
Inspired by Dalio, I also created a set of principles that I constantly live by.
- Think before doing.
- Hell yes or no.
- Challenge and do better than myself every day, not others.
- Be valuable to others, and shine the light on them.
- Do right by God.
- Approach everything and everyone with an open mind.
There are many more principles I adhere to, but this is enough to illustrate what they look like.
Now that you have a good understanding of what principles are, let’s talk about why we should care about them.
Why are principles important?
According to Dalio,
“Without principles, you would be forced to react to circumstances that come at you without considering what you value most and how to make choices to get what you want. This would prevent you from making the most of your life.”
Indeed, principles help you establish what you value most, what you really want — to ensure you don’t lose direction.
Having a set of principles has many benefits:
- It’s easier for you to make good decisions — because you’ll have your core interest at heart.
- You won’t fall into temptation easily — when seduced by short-term gain, you’ll stay true to your principles because you know where your value lies.
- You build respect for yourself — when you act consistently with full focus and commitment on the basis of your principles.
And most importantly, you can directly shape yourself into the person you want to become by guiding your behavior with principles — it inches you closer to your end goal, every day.
How principles transform us
I used to question myself a lot — I was in the habit of acting to please others subconsciously or choosing what’s most comfortable, instead of doing the right thing.
This often left me feeling like sh*t, because I knew I was not being the person I really was — morally and otherwise.
When I started just doing one thing, acting consistent with my principles, things changed. I found that I no longer cared what others thought of me and how they’d react. I stopped choosing the path that gives me the most immediate financial or social gain.
I started choosing to do the right thing, 100% of the time, and my inner conflicts finally dissolved.
This is why I’m sharing this with you — I believe principles have the power to transform you, me, and everyone alike.
So, what’s next for you?
If you want to get on this “principles” thing, here’s what you can do:
1 — Find your personal vision
What kind of person do you want to become in 5, 10, or 20 years?
2 — What qualities do you need to get there?
Perhaps you need more discipline to achieve your career goals, more compassion to build meaningful relationships, or more courage to seek out opportunities and fully discover yourself.
3 — Turn these qualities into principles, and review them regularly
Continue to remind yourself of the principles you stand for, and use them to guide your every action and decision.
Be conscious of how they shape you, and revise if necessary.
Thanks for reading, and before you go, let me leave you with this idea,
Only when you stay true to your principles and your principles only, you can set free from the pressures that prevent you from becoming the person you want to be.